Traditionally, henna consists of the dried powdered leaves of the plants Lawsonia Alba, Lawsonia Spinosa and Lawsonia Inemis. The leaves are picked from the henna shrub, which is found in profusion in Egypt, Tunis Africa, Arabia, Persia, India and other tropical countries. In addition, the so-called "black henna" is derived from the leaves of the woad plant and is used to blend with Lawsonia hennas to produce darker shades of red. There is also "neutral henna" which contains no active dyestuff and is used where conditioning of hair is desired without coloring. Neutral henna is derived from the leaves of the lotus tree.
The use of henna powder to color and condition the hair has been known for at least 2,000 years. The first recorded user of henna as a hair dye was Egyptian Queen Ses, mother of King Teto.
In this country, henna was popular in the 1930's and 1940's to add highlights to the hair before it was acceptable to use more permanent hair dyeing formulations. With the advent of more sophisticated hair coloring preparations which impart softer, more natural hair color and the general acceptance of hair coloring, the use of henna diminished. However, with the current emphasis on natural products, henna-based hair dyeing and conditioning compositions are enjoying heightened popularity.
Henna may be applied to the hair in various forms. Henna may be extracted or mixed with boiling water and poured several times over freshly washed hair; it may be mixed with shampoo; or mixed with hot water, acidified to a pH of about 5.5 and applied to the hair. However, modern commercial preparations are generally powders which are mixed with water, applied to the hair as a slurry, covered with a cap for about 1 hour and then rinsed from the hair. While the currently available henna preparations impart various shades of red to the treated hair and, in addition add body and luster to the treated hair, they have a number of disadvantages. The presently available henna powder preparations have a remarked tendency to coalesce into small balls, forming a lumpy mixture which is difficult to apply uniformly to the hair. Furthermore, the henna slurry is difficult to rinse from the hair. A more serious disadvantage is the difficulty of wet combing henna-treated hair; and, perhaps the most serious disadvantage is that the commercial henna treatments create an extreme static condition in the hair which results in undesirable fly-away hair.
With the aforementioned modern emphasis on "natural" products, there is a need for improved henna-based hair treating compositions which can be employed for either coloring the hair, conditioning the hair or both. The present invention provides such improved henna-based hair coloring and/or conditioning compositions which overcomes all of the above problems encountered with the use of presently available commercial products and thus fulfills the need for improved "natural" hair treating compositions.